In May, Toyota stated its intention to invest $50 million in electric car maker Tesla Motors. Today, the companies announced that Tesla will produce an electric version of the Rav4 SUV for Toyota in 2012.

This won't be the first electric Rav4—an earlier electric version, the Rav4 EV, was manufactured on a limited basis from 1997 until 2003—but Tesla's design will be much more widely available. Tesla's currently at work on their first electric Rav prototype and are aiming deliver it later this year, hopefully manufacturing the vehicle for the public by 2012. [Money]